Editor and Publisher: 'Seattle P-I' Seeks NLRB Help In Online Reporter Dispute

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003659263

By Joe Strupp

Published: October 17, 2007 11:05 AM ET

NEW YORK The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is asking the National Labor Relations Board to settle a dispute with the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild over a newly created position of online reporter. Guild members want the new job to be part of the union's covered positions, the paper reported.

The local Guild is suing the P-I and its owner, The Hearst Corp., in federal court alleging it has violated a collective bargaining agreement, the P-I reported. The union represents reporters, photographers, copy editors and artists, but not the online reporter, which is part of the paper's New Media Department.

"We have asked the NLRB to make it clear that employees in the New Media Department are excluded from the Guild's certified bargaining unit," P-I Associate Publisher Kenneth Bunting said in an e-mail sent to P-I employees.

"It is a request that the federal agency charged with the task of protecting employees' rights in matters of union representation determine if employees in the New Media Department can be forced into the Guild against their will and against the understanding of the 1998 agreement."

Bunting said the petition to the NLRB was made last week. The paper reports a hearing is set for Oct. 24.

FULL story at link.